Ancient Sparta

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Ancient Sparta

• Warriors of the Ancient World

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Spartan Territory
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Historical Records

• Much of our knowledge of ancient Sparta comes
  from secondary sources
• By tradition and law, most of the records, laws,
  literature, and customs of ancient Sparta were
  not written but were transmitted through the ages
  orally

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Spartan Government

• Shared Power

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Spartan Kings

• Two kings
• Each could veto the other
• Hereditary
• Duties were religious, judicial, and militaristic
• Chief priests
• Performed certain sacrifices
• Maintained communications with the Oracle at
  Delphi
• Limited judicial function

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Ephors

• An official of ancient Sparta
• There were five ephors
• elected annually
• Position may have arisen from the need for
  governors while the kings were leading armies in
  battle
• Ephors were elected by the popular assembly
• All citizens were eligible for election
• Were forbidden to be reelected
• Provided a balance for the two kings, who rarely
  cooperated with each other
• Ephors presided over meetings of the Gerousia,
  the oligarchic council of elders
• Ephor were in charge of
• civil trials
• Taxation
• the calendar
• foreign policy
• military training for young men

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Ephors

• The year was named after one of them
• Two ephors accompanied the army in battle
• They could arrest and imprison the kings for
  misconduct during war
• The ephors were also considered to be personally
  at war with the helots, so that they could
  imprison or execute any of them for any reason at
  any time without having to bring them to trial or
  violate religious rituals
• Since decisions were made by majority vote, this
  could mean that Sparta's policy could change fast

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Gerousia

• A council of elders the Spartan Senate
• 28 members plus the two kings
• Must be at least 60 years old to be a member
• Prepared motions for the Apella
• Could veto motions passed by the Apella
• Consulted by the Ephors in interpretation of laws

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Spartan Assembly

• Apella
• Assembly of citizens
• Very little is known of this due to a lack of
  historical records

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Citizenship

• Citizenship consisted of those who had completed
  military training
• Only certain people were allowed to take military
  training
• Spartiates, or people who could trace their
  ancestry to the original inhabitants of the city

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Spartan Society

• Supreme Military Power

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Non-Military Segments

• Helots
• Mostly ex-citizens of the conquered city-state of
  Messenia
• Farmers who gave back 50 of their crops to the
  Spartan state
• Perioeci
• Towns-people
• Artisans
• Traders

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Birth

• At birth, mothers bathed babies in wine
• If they survived, they were shown to elders to be
  inspected for suitability
• Those who were rejected were abandoned on a hill
  side
• Often these children were found and adopted by
  helots

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Military Life

• Spartans began military training at age of 7
• They entered the agoge system for education and
  training
• everything from physical training such as hunting
  and dancing, to emotional, and spiritual training
• The Spartan youth would have to go through what
  was known as the gauntlet
• They would have to run around a group of older
  children, who would flog them continually with
  whips, sometimes to death
• Students were lightly clothed
• Slept on a hard board with no bedding to speak of
• Not given enough to eat
• Were forced to steal for their food
• Punished severely if caught

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Military Life

• At the age of twenty, the Spartan citizen began
  his membership in one of the syssitia (dining
  messes or clubs), composed of about fifteen
  members each, of which every citizen was required
  to be a member
• Here each group learned how to bond and rely on
  one another
• The Spartan exercised the full rights and duties
  of a citizen at the age of thirty
• Only native Spartans were considered full
  citizens, and needed to undergo the training as
  prescribed by law, and participation in and
  contribution to one of the syssitia
• Those who fulfilled these conditions were
  considered "peers" (homoioi), citizens in the
  fullest sense of the word, while those who failed
  were called "lesser citizens," and retained only
  the civil rights of citizenship

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Role of Women

• Spartan women enjoyed a status, power and respect
  that was unknown in the rest of the classical
  world
• They controlled their own properties, as well as
  the properties of male relatives who were away
  with the army.
• It is estimated that women were the sole owners
  of at least 40 of all land and property in
  Sparta
• Spartan women received as much education as men,
  as well as a substantial amount of physical
  education and gymnastic training
• They rarely got married before the age of 20
• Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing
  clothes and were rarely seen outside the house,
  Spartan women wore short dresses and went where
  they pleased